Hungarian doctor will perform surgery on Mars?

As long as astronauts only flew as far as the International Space Station (ISS), they could be brought back to Earth quickly if an illness or injury required urgent medical attention. With a more extended mission to the Moon, and especially to Mars, this is out of the question. Space surgery is once again enjoying its renaissance.

Forbes wrote about an interview with Dóra Babócs, a researcher at the University of Texas at Houston Medical Centre. She has been researching space medicine and surgery for years. Dóra has been offered a two-year position in Texas and left her home, Szeged. According to her, she is training in the clinic’s outstanding endovascular aortic surgery program.

She also gets to see how her mentor at one of the world’s leading vascular surgery centres, famous for its pioneering techniques, performs minimally intensive endovascular (minimally stressful for the patient, within the blood vessels) procedures for aortic diseases that require unique designs, complex surgical techniques and procedures. Vascular surgery, including endovascular surgery, is very advanced in the US. After two years, she would like to join a residency programme here.

Complications in space

Although a thorough screening of astronauts before a space mission can eliminate many diseases and reduce health risks, many new emerging diseases should be expected during a long-duration space mission. Dóra Babócs says:

During a space mission, there are at least fifty medical conditions that may require some kind of surgical expertise, these are the cases that my research team and I are trying to identify in our ongoing scientific literature review.